Arrow Season 2: 6 Things We Learned Courtesy Of Stephen Amell

October 8, 2013 04:27 PM EDT

After failing to stop the destruction of The Glades in the “Arrow” Season 1 finale, fans will finally find out what’s next for Stephen Amell’s Oliver Queen when the show returns for its Season 2 premiere on The CW this Wednesday.

But, you don’t have to wait that long to get hints at what’s ahead.

After Warner Bros. flew Access Hollywood up to the Vancouver set of the show, where they made us their guest, we sat in on a group interview with series star Stephen, who dished about the upcoming season.

Oliver Heads Back To The Island In Present Time: “The way that it was pitched to me was that the island for Oliver is kind of like his fortress of solitude, actually, and after everything that went down with Malcolm [Merlyn] and the undertaking and Tommy [Meryln], that there was just nothing in Starling City for him,” Stephen explained about what sends Oliver across the sea. “So in that case, he goes where he is most comfortable, which is the island.”

When He Finally Returns Back To Starling City, Oliver’s Goals Have Changed: “There was very little that was heroic about what he was doing last year. Save for what he attempted at the very, very end, it was all vengeance and revenge and the burden of his father,” Stephen said. “So for Oliver this year, he’s just much more relaxed, much more easygoing and… what he’s doing and how he is spending his nights is making him feel good. He’s not really chasing a ghost anymore.”

Oliver’s New Heroism Is Influenced By Diggle & Felicity: “[In] the first episode we’re dealing with Hood copycats and in the second episode, it’s a very straight forward — people are stealing medical supplies that are earmarked for Glades Memorial — and we’re seeing Oliver be really upset by people messing with justice and what should happen in the city to make the city a better place. And both Diggle and Felicity have imparted some of those values on to him, because, again, he learned a lot of martial arts on the island and he learned how to use a bow and arrow and he learned how to become a killer, but I wouldn’t necessarily say that he became a great person there,” Stephen explained. “So, they’ve given him a lot of empathy and a lot of understanding that there’s more than one way to win a fight.”

On How Roy Harper (Colton Haynes) Fits In With Oliver This Season & Stephen’s Hopes For The Character’s Future: “Cool stuff is happening with Roy and I’ve seen some stuff and Colton’s actually… he’s really funny. He and Oliver are getting a chance to interact a little bit. In the first episode we see it briefly, but we have a good talk, or talking to as the case may be in the second episode and I don’t know where they’re gonna take that character, but much the same way that Felicity brought a new dynamic in and Diggle is the voice of reason, I think having a younger, maybe more eager, more virtuous guy on the team would be a lot of fun. I don’t know if and when it’ll happen, but it would be, I think it would work.”

On Oliver’s Romantic Life: “He is in a spot where he is convinced that he shouldn’t be with anybody that he could really, really care about. That doesn’t mean that he can’t be with some people that he sort of kind of cares about,” Stephen said, with a smile. “That’s one of the things that we actually touched on in the first season and we are also [doing so] in Season 2 as well, that I think if you gave this guy some truth serum, he would admit to being a little bit lonely.”

There’s More Trouble On Lian Yu In The Flashbacks: “Just as we start to see things go well in the present, they really go to sh** on the island, really fast. … You have to think about what type of person Oliver was when he got back from the island. … [If you were able to jump ahead a few seasons, and look back on the show and] were able to piece together that entire storyline from being shipwrecked to coming back to Starling City, I mean, he’s gotta go down to a pretty awful place to become the person that he was when he came back, to be able to lie so easily and be so clandestine,” Stephen said. “So, the island… clearly the island can never stay deserted. We thought I was there all by myself, and there was Fyers and that whole group and now they are mostly taken care of and a new danger pops up pretty quickly.”

“Arrow” Season 2 premieres on Wednesday night at 8/7c before the series premiere of “The Tomorrow People” at 9/8c on The CW.